Mike Gibbon
John Michael "Mike" Gibbon (born 27th January 1942 in Fulmar, Buckinghamshire) was the second overall manager of EastEnders and is an experienced television producer and director who has worked on multiple productions both for the BBC and ITV. He directed a total of 27 episodes on the show between September 1985 and April 1989. Mike's earlier contributions to television came in the early 1970s when he had brief directing jobs on series Intimate Strangers, Within These Walls, Castaways and The Brack Report. His break in directing began when he directed over fifty worth of episodes for Emmerdale Farm. And before making his East End debut, he had a brief job directing an episode of The Brief. Before becoming EastEnders ' fully-fledged manager, Mike began directing episodes in 1985 and went on to direct episodes after becoming the producer. In 1988, he took over the position of the producer from Tony Virgo and began working closely with the then series producer Julia Smith and soon afterwards associate producer Corinne Hollingworth. However, in early 1989 both creators Julia and Tony Holland decided that their time was up with the show and decided to leave, therefore Mike became the overall manager, and his first executive episode began on Episode 418 on 7th February 1989. During his reign as the shows overall manager, Mike continued to work closely with Corinne, and it was decided that the show required a significant change, due to the public criticising it as "depressing". And because of this, Mike waved into the direction of Coronation Street and gave the show a slight comical twist and was responsible for introducing amusing characters such as Trevor Short, Julie Cooper and Paul Priestly. Mike also decided to enlist the most experienced writers to take over the storylining of the programme including writers as such as Charlie Humphreys, Jane Hollowood and Tony McHale. There was also a critical response that Mike was planning an IRAF bombing storyline that would kill several characters in the show. However, this never occurred, and Mike's reign was short-lived with his final credited episode being Episode 511 on 28th December 1989 when the role was taken over by Michael Ferguson. Episodes directed by Mike Gibbon 1985 (6 episodes) *Episode 57 (3rd September 1985) *Episode 58 (5th September 1985) *Episode 63 (24th September 1985) *Episode 64 (26th September 1985) *Episode 69 (15th October 1985) *Episode 70 (17th October 1985) 1986 (12 episodes) *Episode 131 (20th May 1986) *Episode 132 (22nd May 1986) *Episode 137 (10th June 1986) *Episode 138 (12th June 1986) *Episode 143 (1st July 1986) *Episode 144 (3rd July 1986) *Episode 169 (30th September 1986) *Episode 170 (2nd October 1986) *Episode 175 (21st October 1986) *Episode 176 (23rd October 1986) *Episode 181 (11th November 1986) *Episode 182 (13th November 1986) 1987 (6 episodes) *Episode 242 (9th June 1987) *Episode 243 (11th June 1987) *Episode 248 (30th June 1987) *Episode 249 (2nd July 1987) *Episode 254 (21st July 1987) *Episode 255 (23rd July 1987) 1988 (2 episodes) *Episode 314 (9th February 1988) *Episode 315 (11th February 1988) 1989 (1 episode) *Episode 434 (4th April 1989) Category:EastEnders producers Category:EastEnders directors